Doctor Stranger: Episode 17

There’s more of what the doctor didn’t order in this hour with the one surgical competition that will never end, injecting the show with even more moments of medical incompetency than I thought it could handle. On the upside, there are a few emotional beats that ought to stir your heart unless that heart is made of stone. But I’m sure that if there were two patients who shared that same condition, Chairman Oh would create another round just to have Hoon and Jae-joon compete again. Like a bonus round.

As for the Monday ratings: Stranger kept first place with 11.6% with Triangle trailing with 7.4% and Trot Lovers rounding out the pack with 6.1%.

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EPISODE 17 RECAP

Not a moment too soon, Hoon arrives at the operating theater and takes the lead on the pre-final-finale-sort-of-last surgery. It’s actually amusing how one viewer (since everyone’s busy watching instead of doing their jobs) asks, “Where was he until now?” Your guess is as good as mine.

Everyone sits up a little straighter in their seats as Hoon repairs the critical tear, and Chairman Oh calls in and orders Doctor Yang to make sure that Hoon loses this round by any means. Weren’t… you worried about a table death not just five minutes ago?

Doctor Yang agrees, albeit reluctantly, and then proceeds to impede Hoon’s progress. His attempts don’t go unnoticed by Hoon, who orders Yang out of surgery at once. But Team Hoon isn’t out of the woods just yet because their patient’s vitals go haywire—they’re in need of a specialized anesthesiologist.

Enter Seung-hee, who had heard about Hoon’s return from Jae-joon earlier. She stabilizes the patient, and Hoon can’t help but steal glances at her as he continues. He’s unaware that Soo-hyun is watching him outside the operating room, and she’s unaware that Jae-joon is watching her until she turns to leave.

After surgery, Seung-hee pulls Hoon out to lecture him about returning to the hospital when she told him not to, even though she told Soo-hyun that Hoon would definitely be back. I don’t really understand either, but people in this universe seem to forget what they said or just happened five minutes ago anyway.

Hoon replies that he can’t, no won’t send her into the president’s surgery alone, telling her to stop leaving him behind anymore. He hated her for letting go of his hand on that bridge in Budapest and also himself for not falling in after her, so this time they’ll face any danger together.

He’ll make sure to win this competition no matter what so she can carry out her original plan to meet the president without dragging down a decent doctor like Jae-joon down with them. Agreeing that he’s got plenty to worry about as it is, Hoon asks her to relieve him of one concern: where his mother is.

Nightshade calls to inquire how Hoon’s return changes up their plans, Seung-hee affirms that it doesn’t—she and Jae-joon will operate on the president and Hoon will stay out of it.

It looks like Seung-hee disclosed Mom’s hiding place to Hoon after all, since we see him show up at Chang-yi’s place—the teddy bear a telltale sign that he’s got the right place. He heads inside and immediately chokes up at the sight of her. “Mom,” he finally utters.

Mom gets up to take the doll from his arms and speaks to it as if it were Hoon himself. Clutching it towards her, she says, “I was looking for you. I’m sorry, Hoon-ah. I’m really sorry.” With tears in his eyes, Hoon replies, “No, I was wrong.”

When Mom looks up at his face to ask who he is, Hoon identifies himself to her: “It’s me, Hoon.” Hoon sincerely apologizes to his mother, saying that he resented her for years because he thought she abandoned him and he didn’t even know what she’d been through.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” he repeats, then gently draws her into a hug, letting the tears fall where they may.

Chairman Oh goes straight to Prime Minister Jang to complain about how the man keeps flip-flopping on who should operate on his heart surgery. It’s only when he threatens to pull the plug on Myungwoo’s involvement does Prime Minister Jang reveal that it isn’t his heart on the line, but the president’s.

Nothing good will come of it if word gets out too early, but if the patient were to be successfully treated at Myungwoo, then that would mean lots of good press for the hospital.

Doctor Yang manages to brush aside the question of why he’s been thrown out of the operating room twice already by asking if the surgical competition is still tied. Doctor Moon claims it is, and even asks Jae-joon for confirmation, much to the latter’s annoyance.

Rejuvenated by his conversation with the prime minister, Chairman Oh presents the two similar patients for their real final tie-breaking round. The heart valve procedure should be easy enough for both surgeons, and the winner will be whoever finishes the fastest.

Doctor Moon gripes about how Jae-joon has an advantage because his patient is a young female, but Chairman Oh argues that they can’t keep this surgical competition going on forever with the prime minister waiting (orrrr can they? *cries*). If Doctor Moon doesn’t like it, he can concede the win to Jae-joon.

Hoon, on the other hand, agrees to the terms and assures Doctor Moon that he’ll win this thing. But first thing’s first: He’ll need to some surgical team spring cleaning.

So Hoon walks in the middle of Nurse Min questioning her husband on why he keeps trying to sabotage their surgeries. At Doctor Yang’s denial of doing anything of the sort, Hoon makes the executive decision and bars Yang from his operating room.

Before Hoon can leave, Doctor Yang finally admits why he got his hands dirty: It wasn’t just for the money, but because he hates arrogant people like Hoon who can spend money easily and don’t understand that ordinary folk like him have to work themselves to the bone or resort to doing dishonest acts.

But dirtying one’s hand is something Hoon knows of all too well; he also knows the pain guilt that comes with it, and that’s why he’s removing Yang from his team. Furthermore, Doctor Yang isn’t just an ordinary man—the privilege to wear a doctor’s coat means that patients entrust their lives to him. “Let’s not disappoint them anymore, Doctor Yang,” Hoon says.

Nurse Min agrees with Hoon, telling her husband that he’ll lose everything if he continues down this path.

Chairman Oh whispers to Jae-joon that all he needs to do is complete this surgery, since he’ll be a shoe-in to win anyway. And once Jae-joon is picked for the surgical team, he’ll have to become the chairman’s representative, the details of which will become clear once the competition is over.

Chairman Oh rubs his chest while he says all this, as if it pains him. Looks like he isn’t the only one with heart problems around here. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Jae-joon, who mulls over his revenge plans in his office and says out loud that he’s nearly there.

Hoon saunters into the office and plays with the wooden knight, but he cuts to the chase and asks that Jae-joon withdraw from the competition. Jae-joon refuses, and he isn’t the least bit swayed by Hoon’s concern for him.

Instead, Jae-joon asks if Hoon’s adamance is related to his father, a question that piques Hoon’s curiosity. Come to think of it, Hoon wonders how Jae-joon knew that Dad was sent up to the North, since he never told Jae-joon about that.

So Jae-joon explains how he knows by talking about himself in the third person, referring to his Lee Seung-hoon identity as “a friend from Harvard.” Throwing down the lawsuit documents for Hoon to see, Jae-joon claims to be acting per his friend’s request to find out whatever happened to that doctor that abandoned his family’s case to seek fame by operating on the North Korean leader.

Hoon clarifies that Dad was deceived by Prime Minister Jang and Chairman Oh under false pretenses to stop a war. Jae-joon calls that a flat-out lie, and perhaps catches himself protesting too much and says “his friend” won’t accept that excuse. When Hoon offers to speak to Lee Seung-hoon himself, Jae-joon says he hasn’t really kept in touch lately.

Hoon calls out Soo-hyun for avoiding him in the hallway via text, which leads to some PPL bickering until Hoon finally catches up to her. He speaks first since he’s got a few things to say, including how sorry he is, that what Chairman Oh did isn’t her fault, and tops it off with pressing down on her hair again.

He childishly pouts at her when she gets all upset, claiming that he just wants to get along with her. He then pokes and teases Soo-hyun to get a rise out of her, which Jae-joon sees.

Soo-hyun can’t help but smirk thinking of the playful exchange, but then finds herself alone with Jae-joon in the elevator. Jae-joon lets his jealousy flare at seeing her joke around with Hoon earlier, but she claims she’s trying to get over her feelings for Hoon as it is.

Soo-hyun finally gets to discuss her discovery about Seung-hee’s true identity as Jae-hee. Soo-hyun asks if she really came from the North and if she has an ulterior motive for wanting to be on the prime minister’s team. If so, she better leave Hoon out of it. (For the purposes of this conversation, I’ll call her Jae-hee.)

Jae-hee confirms that she did meet Hoon in the DPRK, but she’s in fact a second-generation North Korean-Japanese. She received medical treatment in Japan and finished medical school there. She pretended not to know who Hoon was because she didn’t have the courage to face him.

Rolling with the explanation that the CT scan Soo-hyun saw was one kidney, Jae-hee divulges that that kidney came from her father. Hoon performed that kidney transplant operation, and while she knows that he was trying to save her, that also meant that Hoon killed her father. Knowing that truth now, she wasn’t sure if she could love him like she once did anymore.

Soo-hyun assures Jae-hee that Hoon loves her without a doubt. Jae-hee had hoped for that too, but she can’t help but think that Hoon’s feelings for her were out of a guilty conscience or irritation. She declares that she’ll be returning to Japan soon, and then claims that Hoon likes Soo-hyun, notably distancing herself from him by calling him “Doctor Park.”

Jae-hee is sure that Hoon would’ve chosen Soo-hyun if they exclude both of their fathers’ muddied pasts, but Soo-hyun reaffirms that Hoon only has eyes for Jae-hee. But Jae-hee smiles and asks Soo-hyun to wait after she leaves for Japan—if she stays by Hoon’s side, she’ll see how Hoon truly feels.

Hoon drops in carrying bags of groceries, intending to utilize Chang-yi’s help to whip up a homemade meal for Mom, though he’s left grumbling when she reheats leftovers instead. Hoon: “I thought you worked at a restaurant before.” Chang-yi: “I was the delivery girl.” Ha.

Mom just stares the dinner table, and it’s only when Hoon and Chang-yi start eating does she pick up her chopsticks to join them. Then Mom does the motherly gesture and silently places banchan on Hoon’s spoon, which Hoon happily accepts.

She does it over and over again, waiting for Hoon to empty his spoon so she can place more food on top of it. It’s a small but loving gesture that has Hoon fighting back tears of gratitude. Mom cracks a tiny smile. Awwww.

Soo-hyun is still feeling awkward around Hoon when he saunters over with his usual friendly, cavalier greeting at the nurses station. The nurses wonder if they’ve been fighting again, and Soo-hyun asks that he stop calling her “Quack” lest her patients get the wrong idea.

But Hoon finds that he can’t break the habit that easily, and the nurses excuse themselves, trying to stifle their laughter. Soo-hyun asks that he stop joking around with her, and when Hoon says he’s just trying to make things comfortable again, she asks if that can happen overnight.

Hoon has barely has time to let that sink in when a patient behind him asks if he likes that unni. It’s Chi-gyu’s sister we saw in the previous episode, and she gets a few playful jabs in before Hoon sends her on her way.

Chi-gyu and his sister’s argument quickly evolves into an all-out brawl back in her hospital room. Wielding her stiletto heel against him, she pins him to the ground. This is how Jae-joon finds them, and she introduces herself as Chi-gyu’s sister. Ohh, so she’s Jae-joon’s patient?

It turns out that Chi-gyu’s sister, Ah-young, knows about her own heart condition quite well. Her shortness of breath and dizziness are the first signs of heart failure, which means that she’s going to need surgery whether she likes it or not.

It appears that Ah-young has kept her condition a secret from her brother and has been to nearly a dozen hospitals already trying to get a second opinion.

Ah-young catches the tail-end of Hoon’s explanation of the procedure to his own patient, and then pulls him aside for a chat.

She doesn’t get the second opinion she’s looking for from Hoon, however, though she’s comforted when he says Jae-joon can be trusted as her doctor. She lets out a disheartened sigh to hear that there is no alternative other than surgery.

Her main concern is that she’s getting married to her soulmate next month, and even giggles that they share similar heartbeats. Hoon can’t help but chuckle. Showing off some wedding pictures, Ah-young says she wants to get married and have kids, but having that surgery will put an end to that dream.

Hoon affirms that she’ll have difficulty getting pregnant later, but encourages surgery anyway. Ah-young gets up in a huff, but then turns to ask to see her own ultrasound so that she can curse that heart valve for ruining her life.

But Hoon sees that something is off when he finally sees that ultrasound for himself, and Ah-young curses her scan, none the wiser. Hoon beelines to confront Jae-joon about his patient’s condition, arguing that surgery isn’t necessary yet.

Furthermore, the medication she’ll have to take post-surgery reduces her chances for pregnancy, and she wants to have kids in the future. Jae-joon asks if Hoon is throwing in the towel for the competition, refusing to listen to logical reason that the patient can give birth and still wait a decade before surgery is necessary.

There’s a chance her life could change for the better by then, and Jae-joon knows it too, Hoon argues. A doctor should consider his patient’s interests, but Jae-joon throws those words back at him, determined to operate.

When Hoon says they can just call it a tie again this round, Jae-joon growls that this has to be the final round. If Hoon wants to act like the self-righteous doctor he is, then they can just switch patients. But Jae-joon knows that Hoon wouldn’t agree to that because not performing surgery means to lose, and Jae-joon snarls that he’ll switch anytime.

Chi-gyu has overheard their exchange, astounded to hear what he’s just learned. He asks if it’s true, and then heads over to ask Jae-joon for his medical opinion. He believes Jae-joon that his sister does need surgery, and then whispers that Hoon had a different opinion.

Jae-joon turns that statement into a teaching point about mitral stenosis (when the mitral valve doesn’t open fully), listing off all the major symptoms. Chi-gyu points out that it isn’t that bad yet, but Jae-joon argues that they can’t wait for his sister’s condition to worsen, so this surgery is a precautionary measure.

Chi-gyu is still hesitant, however, and asks Jae-joon if this is about the competition. Jae-joon replies that he’s in agreement with the same medical diagnosis the other hospitals made. He adds that having children is still a real possibility for Chi-gyu’s sister after surgery, and tells Chi-gyu to take serious thought into whose medical opinion he trusts: Jae-joon’s or Hoon’s.

Doctor Moon has heard through the grapevine that Jae-joon’s patient doesn’t require surgery. When Hoon says not to say a word since she’s still under Jae-joon’s care, Doctor Moon says he already did, practically giddy at the thought. Sigh, of course you did.

Ah-young bursts inside moments later, and her voice breaking, she asks if it’s true. Hoon says he thinks she can hold off on surgery, but that when Chi-gyu barges in to discredit his words—why should she believe a North Korean doctor when the prestigious Harvard doc and all the other hospitals claim otherwise?

But Ah-young doesn’t care about prestige or background in the least, since they’re all the same kind of doctor. She’s done her homework and she knows that it’s difficult enough to get pregnant and even if she did, there’s a chance for a miscarriage.

Chi-gyu says she can try harder, but Ah-young refuses, asking why she must work harder for something that comes so naturally for other people. She just wants to lead a normal life, and leaves the decision up to her brother.

At Chi-gyu’s conflicted expression, Ah-young demands an answer out of him, even calling him ‘oppa’ in her desperation. In the softest whisper, Chi-gyu tells her to have the surgery, and he can barely handle the sight of his sister’s sobs.

Surgery Day. The president asks what will happen if this round ends in another tie (oh god, please say no) and Prime Minister Jang says the decision will go to Chairman Oh. Hoon is surprised to hear that Jae-hee will be joining Jae-joon’s team.

In fact, Hoon’s even more thrown off by her cold demeanor towards him because she’s suddenly decided to be bitter at him for killing her father. She doesn’t say that outright, but I’m sort of sure that what she means by “Think about what you’ve done to me.” Or something.

Why Jae-hee chooses now of all times to hold that against him is simply beyond me, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s an attempt to push Hoon away so that he’ll end up with Soo-hyun or to bother Hoon. She says they’ll talk about it later, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Whatever her intention was, it does the trick to throw Hoon for a loop, leaving him distracted prior to surgery. Jae-joon excuses Chi-gyu from the operating theater, and as Chi-gyu waits outside, he receives a text from Ah-young’s fiance on her phone saying that he cancelled the wedding hall reservation.

Tears well up in Chi-gyu’s eyes as he flips through his sister’s wedding pictorial and pictures of baby clothes on her phone. Both teams are ready to begin when Chi-gyu rushes into Hoon’s operating room and asks him to switch patients with Jae-joon.

Doing so would mean Hoon would follow his own medical judgment and not operate on Ah-young, thus losing the competition. His voice desperate, Chi-gyu asks for Hoon’s help to act like a proper oppa for once and keeps pleading with him as he’s dragged out of the operating room.

In the adjacent room, Jae-joon prepares to make his first incision. Hoon stalls, however, thinking back to his father’s dying words never to forget that he’s a doctor and his earlier promise to win no matter what.

But next thing we know, we see Hoon’s hand stop Jae-joon’s from cutting into his patient. Jae-joon asks what he’s doing, and Hoon returns, “What do you think?”

COMMENTS

I don’t know what to think anymore, Hoon. I really don’t. I just want this stupid surgical competition/merry go ’round to be over and done with already. It’s never a good sign when the baddies who have been stretching this competition for as many rounds as possible suddenly say that THIS will be the final tie-breaking round whereas your hero is willing to go for another round. But really—what does a number matter when the baddies are too busy trying to sabotage Hoon anyway to make sure that he loses?

So you can imagine my confusion when Chairman Oh decided that he’d risk a table death anyway once Hoon showed up to save the day (again). Is it because he doesn’t care if he has a medical malpractice suit on his hands just so long as he can shift full responsibility onto one doctor even if it occurs in his own hospital? He cared enough to want to save the other patient if Jae-joon held the scalpel or have Doctor Yang do everything he can to help Doctor Moon, but all of that changed once Hoon showed up.

Among the handful of medical dramas I’ve seen over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a show whose medical incompetency builds upon itself with each passing episode. Virtually everyone on Myungwoo’s payroll has made some intentional stupid/coldhearted/inept medical decision, and reacts to possible cases of medical malpractice with either one of two extremes: the downfall of the hospital or as if they narrowly missed stepping in a puddle on the sidewalk. I couldn’t possibly name them all in this show, let alone in one hour, though Jae-joon’s coldheartedness to pursue surgery seems to stand out this episode.

While I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether Jae-joon’s medical judgment was correct, it wouldn’t even matter when the show prefers Hoon’s opinion anyway. And while everyone insisted that surgery was necessary, I couldn’t understand why Jae-joon insisted on performing the operation on a patient who didn’t necessarily need it in order to win a competition, when apparently another tie would mean Chairman Oh would decide the winner. And he would choose Jae-joon. Because I think that’s what The Plan still is, and maybe Jae-joon has to definitely win to see what’s in that envelope. Or maybe that’s just the fever I’m running talking.

But no one is a quite a mystery in this show than the elusive Jae-hee (since she’s apparently back to that now), who not only wanted to protect Hoon and his mother (and at one time, herself) by taking Hoon out of The Plan but now seems to want Hoon be happy with Soo-hyun, even if Soo-hyun keeps insisting that she isn’t the object of Hoon’s affection. Even Jae-hee’s explanation(?) is more confusing than informative because while she claims to being unsure of whether she could love Hoon or not knowing that he killed her father to save her (I haven’t the faintest idea how she found that out), we’ve seen so many episodes of Jae-hee not letting that fact stand in her way, until she decided to hold that truth against Hoon for whatever reason we’ll never be able to fully understand.

At least the tiny thing I can understand out of this show is Hoon’s reunion with his mother. That moment when she placed food on his spoon is one beat that never fails to stir my heart no matter what show it appears in. Plus that’s the only true moment I’ve seen someone love Hoon, no strings attached, in the longest time.

July 1, 2014 at 7:29 AM

July 1, 2014 at 3:32 PM

I was downloading the subs from subscene. The arabic subs uploader, "Doctor Stranger E16 END"

my heart literally skipped a beat, and went like seriously!? is it really the end? then i realise that, today's episode was no. 17.

That's how hard to keep track. I guess that uploader was secretly hoping it's the end of this drama too! Cannot believe we need another week before everything comes to an end.

The writer suck. Suck Fest 2014.
Switch your attention to much worthier shows like "You're All Surrounded." Your week will be much happier.

Sometimes I wonder how much the director/production team plays a part? Like last week's episode, many of us were debating about the kidney scans. The way the scenes were cut, it's not easy to get the idea that Hoon swapped the scans. Unless maybe if you rewinded it. And furthermore, this revelation and confirmation by Soo Hyun only came in sooooo many episodes after.

Some editorial cuts really makes one scratch their head.
In the case of Doctor Stranger, I hope I don't go bald.

Today's episode has another nonsensical revelation. After so many episodes since Jae Hee came back alive. Only now she confronts Hoon about her father's death. Whether she does it so that Hoon would give up on her because she is prepared to go all the way to the end (death) is all besides the point.

Anyway, waste breath commenting.

Salute our dramabeans recap-ers. If it's torturous for us to watch, how much more for those who needs to recap this. Hwaiting!
Just 3 more episodes, hang in there!

July 1, 2014 at 11:46 PM

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I knew the show screwed up, when Jae-hee came back as a Spy. It was a very bad surprise. Knew that nothing good will come out of that. Was still hoping for something better. Wish this drama was 16 episodes, don't know why they would stretch it so much. Guess they don't care about quality and just want to milk this show as much as they can.

July 3, 2014 at 8:49 AM

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Very sorry for riding off your comment!! ><

I really want to ask all the viewers here, because I'm curious to know "What do you find so disappointing in this drama?"
I see comments saying that this drama has been a disappointment, it's a mess, etc.
I can slightly understand that you may feel that the drama has been messy but I believe it's not a disappointment at all! Every episode ending leaves you off your seat. every cliff hanger is so interesting.
People may hate how to rounds of continuous surgeries are endless, but I believe that they are the source to how things are patched up. Every surgery has lead to an important factor in the entire plot.

July 3, 2014 at 8:50 AM

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Very sorry for riding off your comment!! ><

I really want to ask all the viewers here, because I'm curious to know "What do you find so disappointing in this drama?"
I see comments saying that this drama has been a disappointment, it's a mess, etc.
I can slightly understand that you may feel that the drama has been messy but I believe it's not a disappointment at all! Every episode ending leaves you off your seat. every cliff hanger is so interesting.
People may hate how to rounds of continuous surgeries are endless, but I believe that they are the source to how things are patched up. Every surgery has lead to an important factor in the entire plot.

June 30, 2014 at 9:07 PM

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This show is a whole bag of craziness and it's not even the good kind of "crazy." It's like the writer is just throwing in some plot devices hoping that it'll stick and hope for the best. This is basically what I got from Jae Hee and Soo Hyun's conversation:

June 30, 2014 at 11:29 PM

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i could feel you.. i used to like Quack couple but now i just dont even care about it anymore who Hoon end up with... too lazy too care after all the mess.. if SH can find a better guy in the end (much better if it's neither Hoon nor JJ), i'll say go for it girl!

June 30, 2014 at 9:27 PM

For awhile, I was wildly entertained by this show and it's crazy shenanigans. I swore it off each week, only to come back every Monday eagerly awaiting for more.

But this is where it ends for me, folks.

Well, not really.

I'm not watching this week's episodes because I am just really, really at the end of my rope. I can't take this illogical mess anymore. I enjoyed it for so long- despite it's flaws- but this irritating (and I do mean irritating!) love triangle/square? has pushed me to the limit. Not to mention the never ending surgery competition I'm not quite sure why we had in the first place.

Doctor stranger, waeee. I love and hate you so so much.

I'm going to see it through to the end, since I've come this far, of course. But this week I'm taking a break and just reading the recaps, which are so well crafted and hysterical I am literally crying. If anything, at least this show was able to give me some laughs through the recaps.

I'm still rooting for the "Heartbeat Couple" which is why I originally watched this show- I'm a sucker for childhood loves who are brought back together after traumatizing circumstances. But it looks like I won't even get that.

June 30, 2014 at 9:42 PM

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This drama started out so strong and quite promising that it's heartbreaking to see it go downhill like this. The writers completely lost it. They seemed to have not been following their own writing. They have forgotten the very premise the story was founded on, which they set out in the first 2 episodes. I cross my fingers each episode, hoping it'll get better. Since I stuck it out this far already, i hope we'll get a decent ending. I honestly just have one wish - that is, they dont kill off Jae Hee again. That'll just be pitiful! Oh, doctor stranger, i should have waited just waited until all episodes came out before watching you so at least i could have checked out the reviews and could have prepared myself. Sorry, I'm ranting but i had to let it ouuuutttt!

June 30, 2014 at 10:03 PM

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I started out addicted to this show. Perhaps it's because I watched the first 11 episodes in 2 days that I didn't realize how boring it had gotten towards the end of that stretch like other people had commented. As for ridiculousness, that just comes with Korean dramas, so I let it slide, even though as others have pointed out time and time again the faults and inconsistencies that have showed up in this drama.

However, I finally had my breaking point this episode, not just with Hoon's "I want no part of this competition/No, I want in now/No, I want out/No, I want in/I want out" and Jae-hee's "I need to help Hoon/I don't want Hoon to be a part of this/I want Hoon in this/I want Hoon out of this" (honestly, things have flip-flopped with every character more times than John Kerry can handle that I can't keep track and I can't be bothered to go back and double-check my facts), but especially with Jae-hee's sudden decision to bring up the fact that Hoon killed her dad even though Jae-hee's dad asked Hoon to do everything to save Jae-hee. 1: In their time in Budapest and after she found Hoon in South Korea, would this topic not have come up and things be cleared? 2: Why be pissed off now of all times? You had 17 episodes to do so!

As imperfect as this drama is, this is the first time I facepalmed. Perhaps it was because at least they kept me wanting to know what happens next well enough before, and I still do, but it's gotten so out of hand that even this apologist can't cut any more slack.

One more thing: I've been OTP all the way, especially since that's what I thought was the premise of the show at the beginning. I love Soo-hyun and believe that she deserves the best (maybe she can ditch this crazy hospital and family and find someone who's actually worthy of her?), and while I love the Hoonhyun moments, I like them as friends. If they become the couple, I shall NOT be happy, and in fact shall feel quite betrayed.

June 30, 2014 at 10:09 PM

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Well, I think the writers literally have jumped ships now and are now trying their best to put Hoon and Soo-Hyun together. Not that I'm complaining, but you don't have your lead do all this crazy ass shit for THE GIRL only for him to be like "eh, I'm going with the second lead anyway." Hoon is obviously and very consciously (probably because the writers were SO DAMN FIXATED) on being with Jae Hee even if it's clear that he doesn't have nearly the chemistry he has with Soo-Hyun. But I'm a happy shipper of this so whatever.
I've given up getting through an entire episode. Any time they're in the surgery room, I take a shot, close my eyes, and hope the next scene is something cutesy. And then when I see any of our pathetic baddies I just turn it off and come over here to vent :D
You've had quite the bad luck with JSY these past two dramas, Heads. Hopefully she either learns how to emote or ends up in dramas where she doesn't tragically die.
Or the next drama you review just doesn't have her in it at all :D

June 30, 2014 at 10:19 PM

June 30, 2014 at 10:21 PM

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"After surgery, Seung-hee pulls Hoon out to lecture him about returning to the hospital when she told him not to, even though she told Soo-hyun that Hoon would definitely be back. I don’t really understand either, but people in this universe seem to forget what they said or just happened five minutes ago anyway."

Do they all have early on-set dementia? Is that why none of them can remember anything and they're all crazy?

June 30, 2014 at 10:27 PM

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Doctor Stranger continues to be the gift that keeps on giving, except it’s actually an IED intricately wrapped up and garnished by a fancy little ribbon, and it explodes in your face upon opening. But you don’t die of the explosion because you live in a looney tunes world where reality is distorted and all logic is abandoned, but you wish that it would have just killed you, so that way you can spare yourself from further suffering, because you then realize that there are more gifts under the tree.

We start this week’s pair of episodes where we left off from the previous surgery’s cliffhanger, which promises itself to be the final competition to decide who will be the unlucky but willing bloke to risk his medical license and integrity, in an attempt to put the President under a coma. But that conflict was so last week ago, because there is another final-final competition to ultimately decide it, which may or may not be the last. Whoever is keeping the score between Jaejoon and Hoon at this point has long been assassinated and is now replaced by an undercover spy pretending to be in cahoots with the enemy but is actually working so that Hoon will ultimately do the surgery. If this was a horserace I would fearlessly wager that Hoon would win it.

When the production promised that the drama will start going back to its medical roots and focus more about Hoon’s rise to be a real doctor, what they actually were trying to say is that there will be more surgery competitions. Since it is the only time that Hoon can accomplish something outside of being the perfect hero(ine) in distress. And since this is Myeungwoo Hospital, the only time doctors ever get to medically resolve anything is when they have ulterior motives to do so. As an (un)fortunate patient who may be in financial strife or critically ill, Myeungwoo promises that you would be operated on by the best, though of course the actual outcome of your surgery largely rests upon you surviving the surgery from sabotages or spies suddenly assassinating your surgeon, while your entire thoracic cavity is wide open and fresh to be finished up by the other not-so-talented doctors in it. They technically only have a pair of thoracic surgeons, a pair of anesthesiologists, and a pair of fodder doctors just good enough to accidentally puncture an artery--which is still not so bad, considering that the worst that can happen to you is if one of them starts missing, not because you cannot call the other doctor to do the job, but because this is a competition, it’s either you or the other unfortunate soul leaving out of that operating table alive. This is medical drama at its best.

June 30, 2014 at 11:11 PM

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We are at the same point as when Hoon's dad got shot at the beginning of episode 2, still battling with their own conscience. Heh and this is the first time i saw the first male lead got tossed around because the girls are so damn "selfless"

July 1, 2014 at 12:05 AM

July 1, 2014 at 2:26 AM

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I was thinking more a long the lines of when they finally get to operate on the PM (or is it president this week?), they open up his chest and this Alien thing pops out. It proceeds to kill everyone in sight until Ripley storms in from the hospital warehouse on he big yellow Alien killing forklift.

July 2, 2014 at 8:04 PM

I still keep wondering when and why and how Jae-hee turned into a NK spy. Was it after Budapest? If it was, then who turned her into one? Who saved her from the river? And why turn her into a spy?

Also I'm a little confused about what she said about finishing med school in Japan. When did this happen? If this happened after Budapest as well, then who was the person Chang-yi's mother saw at the NK prison camp? And who sent her to Japan? And is she a genius, because she probably had to recuperate for a long time before going back to school, and the timelines just don't allow for her to finish studying that fast. But then again, how far along where they in med school when she and Hoon got engaged anyway?

I do agree, though, that she might be killed or have to disappear and go back to NK. I wonder why her bosses haven't bothered to check in with her yet (onscreen) considering Cha is gone. But then again, I don't think he's dead yet. XD

June 30, 2014 at 11:37 PM

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i think at the jaehee still end together with hoon..jaehee said like that to hoon and so hyun because she want to leave hoon live happily with happy woman who can cheer him up although the fact is she really love him so much.. she said about her father to hoon juz to make him hurt,hate and leave her.. but do you remember the break bracelet that hoon make for jae hee..half has at so hyun..and another half is at jae hee.. i think at the end so hyun will realized hoon only has eyes for jae hee..and she will give it to hoon and hoon will catch jae hee back during jae hee want to leave korea..i watch this drama because the pure love between both jae hee and hoon.. i really ship them..please do not ruin this drama writer nim..pleASE if not hoon father sacrifying himself just to help and safe them to live together is just wasted. pleasee reveal more what jae hee feel all this time..what happen to her all this time..reveal it!!!

June 30, 2014 at 11:40 PM

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I remember how upset I was with "Marry Him If You Dare" I had to call a friend to vent. I don't want to be that upset again with this show so I'm stopping at this point and will just read re-caps for the sake of my sanity. I can't believe I've lasted this long and I was sure to finish it til the end if only for my love for LJS. But even that is proving to be a challenge because I've never seen a show so infuriating I'm actually more upset with myself for wasting 16 hours of my time. 16! That's the average kdrama length I could have used to watch a more deserving one.

July 1, 2014 at 12:55 AM

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Hey Show, how about Hoonie having his happy ever after with his Mom and his good bro Changyi like the last screencap up there, and everyone else can exit stage left? Leave the gangsters, they are acceptably funny.

July 1, 2014 at 1:22 AM

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WTF JAE HEE WHAT YOU DOING GURL!
Personally I shipped Jae hee and Park hoon but now with all the crap she's saying I just can't .. Why is she doing this man it's so stupid can they just end up together and live happily ever after? They're soulmates right but now I just ... I'd rather have Hoon end up with no one at this stage LOL

July 1, 2014 at 2:39 AM

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Christ! This show really sucks. With a plot derivative that goes nowhere. Everyone's still hanging on to the ride to see how this disaster would end. One of the reasons the ratings haven't dropped fot this mess of a show, I suppose.

July 2, 2014 at 8:31 AM

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watch your mouth this manure is earning money but you are only earning a disgrace. I know the story is ugly but the way people talks they acted like they are feeding every individual working hard for this drama... anyway live well.

July 1, 2014 at 6:03 AM

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Remember she told quack this information so it is new to her. The key issue reason she is leaving Hoon has nothing to do with the romance (which is a ruse). It has to do with the fact that Hoon is no longer capable of helping in the mission because he is too good a doctor and would not allow jae Hee to do what the mission requires while JJ would do it if it fits his revenge scenario.

What JaeHee is planning to do to the President is likely something learned in the the hell hospital or a place like that. While Hoon rejected that way of life, Jae Hee continued on and became a medical spy using her skills to advance North Korean interests.

Hoon is bein delusional because he ignores the spy aspect of Jae Hee or he is trying to save her from being a spy. The question that remains is does she want to escape from her spy past or not. My sense is not

July 1, 2014 at 11:32 AM

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But what ARE those North Korean interests that Jae Hee is advancing? I cannot figure out any reason why North Korea would go to all this much trouble with so many spies for so long to do... WHAT? Kill the president - what would that accomplish - last time they tried that, they lost all food aid for years from South Korea.

None of the motivations make any more sense than the (supposed) plot does.

July 1, 2014 at 3:20 AM

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Just give Jae hee happiness ! That"s all i asked for.. Hoon clearly loves her but too much obstacles they have to face in order to live happily just like other couple.. This drama start having a mess with the never ending surgery / useless competition ! I hope they put more about what a real doctor should be, and i bet it's not only Hoon who has that. For Jaehee to mention about her fathers out of blue,, it's so unrelevant! Maybe that is just her excuse to let Hoon go and end up with soohyun. But it is so heartbreaking to watch Jaehee sacrifices everything from the beginning and until now! Gosh director !!! Please make things clear dude.. Lots of curiosity can make viewers lost interest.. No matter what it takes, please reunite HoonHee couple ! jaebaaaaallll !!!

July 1, 2014 at 6:06 AM

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What if giving Jae Hee happiness is allowing her to continue being a North Korean operative? It that is the case than what is the meaning of all of the shipping wars? the revived romance was just a ruse created to advance the conspiracy. When the ruse failed due to Hoon's ethics, what use is it Jae Hee's mission? So the romance has to be dropped regardless of her feelings as this is a job

July 1, 2014 at 11:37 AM

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And given the extreme doctor shortage in North Korea, why would a supposed super-doctor whose family was killed by North Korea and who was shot and then tossed into prison by North Korea end up being a super spy in the South?

July 1, 2014 at 5:54 AM

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This drama makes sense only if you think of it as a spy story first and the medical and romance are all determined by how they affect the spy's mission. Furthermore, it is clear that while Norht Korea and the Prime Minister may have the same interest in terms of the President's surgery, they have different interest in terms of Hoon. Park Hoon is nothing but a tool.

His past relationship with Jae Hee is being played up to use him to serve the Prime Minister's and North Korea's objective. When it became clear that he would not stand for that to happen,(as seen in Jae Hee's fake explanation to him), it is needed to switch to the more malleable and less ethical JJ.

The future of Hoon's and Jae Hee's relationship depends on 1) whether Hoon survives post surgery; and 2) how Jae Hee escapes South Korea and obtains a new identity after the mission is completed. As long as Hoon is alive, he is a threat to the Prime Minister. So even if he is sent abroad, the Prime Minister is not safe. So we can expect an attempt on Hoon's life in episode 19 or 20. North Korea on the other hand wants Hoon to survive as a potential card up its sleeve in future negotiations with the Prime minister.

Jae Hee has to leave South Korea and return to the North given what she has done before she is sent off on another mission with another new identity. So how can she stay with Hoon?

July 1, 2014 at 6:36 AM

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Story and dailogues became soo absurd in this episode. Cant take it any more drama vice, but Mr Park Hoon luks dashing in white shirt :) wooooo awesome. His acting is awesome. Sorry except for hoon , soo yun everyother things are tolerable. Sorry I will happily ship soo yun and park hoon. Story wise there was no need to bring two country concept it just doesnt make sense. Else there should be more weightage , crazy crazy crazy ....

July 1, 2014 at 8:14 AM

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so why aren't we getting anything fron North Korea yet? with all the boasting that JH &CC did, I thought that we would at least get some kind of interference from that side. or did they notice how stupid their plan wad that they gave up too?. hahaha~

July 1, 2014 at 8:52 AM

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This ep clearly provide an answer to who Hoon actually like. He is in love with Jae Hee, coming back with the thought to win the competition, pulling her into a hug and telling her how he feels at Budapest after she let go off his hand.. But Jae Hee decided to do otherwise, cut him out of the plan and letting him go with SooHyun. But Girl, we want you with Hoon to have a happy ending..

July 1, 2014 at 9:18 AM

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i love Park Hoon and SooHyun scene.. its so funny. I'm in tears when there is Hoon & his mom</3 And.. Jae Hee is a strong girl but in this cast, i want her to be happy like what she did to make Hoon happy..

July 1, 2014 at 11:18 AM

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For a show with good premises, the train wrack is impressive. Such a waste of talents in actors/PD/writer (which we know they can do better), and overall a waste of money too!
In that case too, craziness and nonsense bring audience. Oh the irony...

July 1, 2014 at 12:52 PM

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*sigh*
why are crucial decisions to stop the madness made when the poor patient is already anesthetized and the scalpel is a hair width away from slicing...but thanks for that since we've seen way way too many open chest cavities pooled with blood for a lifetime of medical (or not) shows.

And how in the world has the medical madness gone on so long in the first place is beyond any semblance of reason so that things can't possibly be set to right.

July 1, 2014 at 2:37 PM

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I guess hardly anyone thinks it's worth taking this show seriously any more (I for one certainly don't, though not for want of trying over these past wasted weeks). But since a lot of people are just following these recaps and so aren't getting either the original sountrack or any subs, I'll just add my marginally different take on the exchange where JH/SH explains herself to Quack.

Gummimochi writes "Jae-hee confirms that she did meet Hoon in the DPRK, but she's in fact a second-generation North Korean-Japanese. She received medical treatment in Japan and finished medical school there. She pretended not to know who Hoon was because she didn’t have the courage to face him."

I'd be inclined to translate the lines cpmcermed more like: "It's true I met Hoon in North Korea, but strictly speaking [엄밀하게 말하면, a rather odd phrase to use here, what would she describe herself if speaking "unstrictly"??] I'm an ethnic Korean, resident in Japan [재일교포, I don't hear any "second generation" part there, but JSY does tend to swallow her syllables when speaking in her "especially heartfelt" mode"].

So... is she claiming she was partly brought up in Japan? But maybe that's not her claim, because she goes on to say that "after parting from Hoon" she was "evacuated to Japan" [일본으로 후송됐어요, another rather odd choice of words. 후송, the operative part of the verb, is 後送 in Hanja (后送 in simplified characters) and is usually a military term used for "evacuating" wounded combatants from a battlefield or civilians from a war zone. So did some quasi-military agency fish her out of the Danube and "evacuate" her to Japan? But why would they do that, and why to Japan?]

Whatever, that seems to be the basis for her describing herself as resident in Japan and she claims that it was in Japan that she recovered from the transplant, was treated for her injuries and enabled to complete medical school. She also insists that her plan is go to "back to" Japan for good on her own once her task here is finished, leaving the field clear for a mega shippers' party across the globe as Hoon comes to realize he's truly quackers about his Quack (while poor Bottle Girl has to bottle her disappointment, though Mom can give her a generous supply of cuddly pink-vested Hoon substitutes to console herself with.)

All this is presumably a pack of lies (or it would be in a drama where the writers bothered to keep track of what they'd put into earlier parts of the script). But Quack doesn't think to ask what the supposed "task" might be, or how it ties in with the alleged Japan connection. All she does ask is why Seung Hee initially pretended to Hoon that she wasn't Jae Hee, and gets the answer that Jae Hee doesn't think she can love Hoon like she once did, now she knows the connection between her transplant and her father's death, and that she also suspects Hoon doesn't truly love her any more either, but is actually feeling only guilt [죄책감] or a...

July 1, 2014 at 2:47 PM

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(Oops, hit the 3,000 character limit, but I'll be naughtier still and finish off in a "reply"...)

... or a sense of reponsibility [의무감] toward her. (But I can't hear anything on the sound track that would correspond to her saying she thinks Hoon is feeling "irritation" with her) But presumably, this bit of her explanation, unlike the "Japan" stuff, is meant to come across to viewers as in some degree a truthful account of her feelings in the non-spying compartment of her psyche, accounting for those moments where she displays some strength of feeling for Hoon even though no-one is watching.

But who knows? Or cares, after what the writers have inflicted on us all these weeks.

July 1, 2014 at 2:53 PM

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Thanks for the insight. But now I am even more confused on how Japan got into the picture at all. She apparently was born and raised in North Korea, and her father was one of the .001% in the military there. Yet now she is an ethnic Korean residing in Japan (though apparently speaking no Japanese and with a South Korean accent).

July 2, 2014 at 8:48 PM

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Back when Jae-hee first showed up in Myungwoo in Episode...3, I think, I formed a pet theory that Jae-hee has been a spy forever. Like since she was old enough to understand what she had to do, and her particular assignment was to stick with Hoon and make him love her. To what end? I'm not sure. Perhaps Hoon and his talents are important to the North, and so is his father. And having a girlfriend/wife in the North would be a strong anchor for him to not ever leave. But who really knows? But anyway, maybe that's why someone bothered to "evacuate" her to Japan.

Or Jae-hee might have been recruited after Budapest when someone had an idea to save her and use her to get to Hoon. But if she was evacuated to Japan, then who was the girl Chang-yi's mom was in prison with?

July 2, 2014 at 8:54 PM

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Oops, and sorry, I forgot to add this in my original reply.

I can't be bothered with the video right now, but I remember Japan being mentioned in connection with Jae-hee's dad back when she was arrested. They were arrested for a political crime, but I couldn't remember exactly what the nature of it was. At the back of the mind, I just remember that Jae-hee's father was someone who had a Japan connection. Does anyone else remember?

July 3, 2014 at 3:47 PM

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Congrats! I think you've cracked it!

In the scene in ep 1 immediately following Jae Hee's arrest, Hoon's father explained that Jae Hee's father is said to have been associated with the 조총련, which is a North Korean "front" organisation in Japan, controlled from Pyeongyang and bringing together Japanese-resident ethnic Koreans sympathetic to the Communist regime and hostile to Seoul.

I took this to mean that he was somehow part of the NK end of pulling the strings of this "puppet" organization and had been blamed for some aspect of the its failure to gather sufficient support in Japan. It never occurred to me that this was saying he was himself actually a Japanese citizen, or at least had permanent right to reside in Japan, meaning that his daughter would also have that status, too, but it seems that this may be precisely what the writer was intending to say. In fact, it deflected me into thinking her father must have been very much part of the NK security apparatus, accounting for his daughter's double life.

But it seems the Japanese element in her storycould well be true enough, after all, but that still leaves most of the other questions about her "evacuation" and her high-speed transformation from a seriously ill and wounded young woman who apparently still hadn't finished her medical training into an anaethetist with globally unique skills in keeping patients in induced comas without any other medical professional being able to detect that the coma was anything other than natural.

July 3, 2014 at 4:40 PM

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As a chaser to that, I just spent an interesting half hour looking for what the subbers made of the line in question. They all get it partly wrong, though in different ways. Ironically, the various ways they got it wrong would mean that people reliant on the English subs will have been less surprised about the emergence in ep 17 of the "Japanese Connection" than people just following the Korean original.

DramaFever has "I heard she's from the Pyongyang Federation of Koreans residing in Japan." Two things off-beam there. First, Hoon's father is primarily talking about Jae Hee's father or maybe her family, not her individually, so "she" is pretty misleading. And that translation of 조총련 makes it sound like the Pyeongyang branch of a purely ethnicity-based organisation rather than a highly partisan political group, at odds with the sympathies of most Koreans resident in Japan. It might have been better, and less misleading, to translate that as "Federation of pro-Pyeongyang Koreans in Japan."

Crunchyroll has "Her family has ties with The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan." That's an even worse translation of the name of the organisation, completely concealing the nature of the organisation and its hallmark political program, and giving no clue as to why ties with it should be such a problematic thing. (That said, a number of other things that struck me while looking for this scene in the three sets of subs led me to the impression that, overall, the Crunchyroll subs are the most consistently reliable of the bunch, with DramaFever a close-ish second ahead of Viki.)

Viki goes overboard in the opposite direction with "I heard her father was a member of the North Korean Communist Party in Japan." There is, of course, no such body, nor could there be, given the political climate in Japan. But precisely this mistranslation, which seems to assert as a fact that her father himself actually lived in Japan (which the original could imply, but certainly doesn't state in so many words) would prevent the ep 17 revelations from being such an unexpected turn. And indeed the next sentence in Viki "It looks like he's going to be expelled" would also seem to prepare the way for his daughter later being "evacuated" to Japan. Alas, that's not what the line means. It should be more like "He appears to have been the victim of a purge".

July 1, 2014 at 3:04 PM

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Trying to wrap my brain around "The Mission" and everyone's role in it. So here is my understanding:

The Prime Minister is not actually going to have surgery- The surgery is meant for The President. (Correct?) BUT- they're telling Hoon that's it's for the Prime Minister so he will kill him for trapping him and his father in North Korea.

Okay, I get that. So why did we need the surgery competition? Tell Hoon to operate on the Prime Minister... simple.

So I guess their Plan B in the case Hoon rejected doing the surgery was to bribe him into it with Jae Hee? So why did she have another identity? If she's from Japan, doesn't she have citizenship and is therefore qualified for asylum/refugee status? She could have left the North anytime. I'm so confused.

So assuming that I'm right up there so far ^^... Why was the North Korean agent necessary? I forget his name, lol. You know, the one who was shot in the back by Nightshade. Anyway, so if the Prime Minister wanted Jae Hee to bribe Park Hoon with, why did we need the presence of the NK agent anyway?

How does North Korea play into this elaborate conspiracy, other than being the country Jae Hee and Park Hoon originate from? Will they gain something from the Prime Minister for handing Jae Hee over and the PM becoming president?

If it was so easy for Jae Hee to supposedly get into Japan in the first place, why didn't she attempt to go there with Hoon from Budapest? Couldn't they both have somehow applied for refugee status?

So Jae Hee was just plucked out of the Danube and upon discovering she was in fact half Japanese/a citizen, they sent her back ...?

AND OTHER THING: If Hoon was denied asylum in Budapest, how the heck did he somehow make it to South Korea?

July 1, 2014 at 5:01 PM

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I think the only way to watch this show or read its recaps is to expect no answers and to expect that nothing will make sense if you've a modicum or rationality in you. So if you're like me and still reading the recaps, it's purely for out of shite and giggle.

July 1, 2014 at 7:09 PM

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I continue to like the show for the actors, its quirkiness, and its anti-communist bent. How the whole thing became awkward was on the "contests to see who will operate on the politician". It boggles my mind that they would show a hospital with those kind of non-industry standards and ethics. What would be really cool is if the hospital AS A WHOLE TEAM prepared to work on the heart of the president. Why have contests? It's sick! Dr Oh's father just HAS to be removed as the head of that hospital, he makes me sick to look at him. He is so depraved. I hope for some kind of smash bang finish that will bring justice to the evildoers, and a happy ending to the good people, particularly Hoon. The whole Japan thing might be a lie from Jae Hee to help Hoon move on after she thinks she will be killed by North Korea for going against their plans.

July 1, 2014 at 7:13 PM

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I thought I could stick this out......but i really cannot. Just reading the recap is enough to make me cringe. I thought about simply turning off my brain and braving it out, but then again, why would I waste an hour of my life watching this if it's such a chore?

July 4, 2014 at 12:45 AM

So much unnecessary surgery. Interesting how the cases are almost always of critical import and they 'coincidentally' occur in pairs. Funny, that. You'd think there would be some bypass surgeries.

I want Hoon and JJ to end up single. Both of the leading women need to get it together. JH is a simpering, whinging, confusing, mood swing-ing mess, and SH is almost as bad. The writers should be ashamed of themselves, the way they totally ruined two women who had such potential to be intelligent, competent, capable, complex characters, turning them into one-dimensional talking plot devices and set pieces.